Middlebury women’s hockey became a varsity sport in 1981, and eight years later, Bill Mandigo took over at the helm. He’s won 697 games with Middlebury since then, the most of any coach in NCAA women's hockey history.
Mandigo attended college at Wesleyan, where he played football, hockey and baseball — all sports he would later coach at Middlebury. During his time in Connecticut, he always admired the lives of his numerous coaches.
“You get to wear different hats, meet different people and have new experiences,” Mandigo said. “I thought that was awesome when I was at Wesleyan, and that’s what attracted me to go coach in the NESCAC.”
Since coming to Vermont in 1988, Mandigo has won four NCAA championships, 12 NESCAC championships and 12 Coach of the Year awards. Despite his resume, though, Mandigo prefers a low profile, insisting that the bulk of the credit should go to his players. Only after several unanswered emails, text messages and a couple of trips to his office in Kenyon Arena did he agree to talk about the lessons from coaching one of Middlebury’s most successful teams.
From 1992 to 1999, Middlebury went seven years without losing a DIII game. Beginning in those early seasons — and continuing to the present — Mandigo gave the locker room a lot of ownership. The players took charge, both on the ice and with community service in town.
“Every once in a while you have to give them a nudge one way or another way,” Mandigo said.
The Panthers continued their dominance into the next millennium. On Mar. 9, 2003, they traveled to Maine to face an undefeated Bowdoin team, the first time in recent memory not entering the NESCAC playoffs as favorites. Three days later, a Middlebury Campus headline read, “Women’s Hockey Regains League Control With Bowdoin Thrashing.” The Panthers had won 4–0.
“They loved to compete, they wanted to win… they wanted to play,” Mandigo said.
Yet twenty years later, that trip to Maine is a distant memory, a reminder that four years in college go by in a flash.
“Even sitting in this office and in this chair, it’s not the same as playing,” Mandigo said. “Playing is so much better, it’s so much more important. We talk all the time about the privilege that you have that you get to compete.” One of the program’s keys to success has been taking the privilege to play seriously.
The seasons kept flying by as players cycled in and out of Chip Kenyon Arena. In 2016, Mandigo coached his daughter to a NESCAC championship. But the best was still to come. In 2022, Middlebury women’s hockey went undefeated in its first 26 games and won its conference championship before facing Gustavus Adolphus College in the NCAA final. At home, in front of a capacity crowd, Ellie Barney ’22 scored the winner for the Panthers in the 13th minute of overtime.
How was it possible that a squad coming off a cancelled season (due to COVID) became the first Division III women’s hockey team to finish a season with a perfect record? Mandigo reckons it was because of their relentless ambition.
“I wouldn't say that team was tremendously skillful,” he said. “I think they worked really hard, they really liked each other — they appreciated the opportunity to play hockey because it had been taken away from them for a year and a half.”
As of today, Middlebury’s women’s hockey ranks #5 nationally. During practice, they hear the same lessons Mandigo told his first team back in 1988.
“Control what you can control,” is one of his most enduring mantras. “The referees make a bad call, you can’t control that, can you? So don't dwell on it, don't worry about it,” Mandigo said. Admittedly, that rule won’t stop him from letting the referees know about a bad call.
Another lesson is not to judge success by the trophy cabinet.
“At the end of the day, you have to be able to look yourself in the mirror and say you did the best you could,” Mandigo said. “If everyone can do that, win, lose or draw, if you leave it all on the ice, that’s what matters.”
Sitting in his office in Chip Kenyon Arena, Mandigo looked back on the last four decades: generations of players, a storied program and one coach. “I’ve had chances to leave, and it's kind of hard to believe I've been here 38 years,” he reflected. “Every time I think about it, I’m like: where has the time gone?”
He’s proud not only of the championships, but of the thousands of community service hours his teams have invested. Meg Simon ’26 was recently named a finalist for the 2026 Hockey Humanitarian Award. And Mandigo loves it when former players write him notes or even invite him to weddings.
As the interview came to a close, there was still a half-finished can of Diet Coke on the desk. I went to throw it out, but Mandigo quickly stopped me. The last, and undoubtedly most important lesson of the day: “Don’t ever waste a Diet Coke.”
